Tom Dumoulin to start in the Tour de France: I go to learn without a specific result in mind

Jun 06 2018 08:02 pm CET

Photo of Tom Dumoulin (c) Team Sunweb

Team Sunweb has announced the long-list of selected riders for the Tour de France. Tom Dumoulin will explore his GC opportunities for the first time in the Grande Boucle.

As expected, the winner of the 2017 Giro d'Italia will captain the team at the Tour de France without any big expectations. "I am very proud of what we’ve already achieved at the Giro and I consider any result that we can take at the Tour de France a bonus for this season," commented the rider. "My season so far has been focused on the Giro and the team purposely waited to the make the decision about the Tour until after the Giro had finished.

"After a good Giro, we’ve chosen to go to the Tour with a GC focus, to learn without a specific result in mind. Doing two consecutive grand tours for a GC will be a new experience for me and the team, and will give us some valuable insights for the future."

Another rider included in the list is Michael Matthews, who can also try to improve from the result he obtained in the 2017 edition of the race. "Last year we had a perfect Tour de France with four stage wins and two jerseys," the Australian said.

"Taking the green jersey to Paris was a dream come true for me. This year my primary focus will be to support the team’s GC objective and in the uphill sprint stages, I will be the team’s designated rider for the finale. We had a very good training block in Livigno and we’ll head to the Tour de Suisse on Thursday to put in the last bit of intensity before July."

The team also has the aim of showing why it took the victory at the team time trial World Championships in the stage that will be dedicated to this discipline. "As the world champions, the TTT is a stage that we have already highlighted and we will look for a solid result there," explained coach Tom Veelers. "We’ve never been to the Tour de France with a GC focus and it will be a completely new experience for us and a long-term challenge that we are looking forward to."

Pre-selection of Team Sunweb for the 2018 Tour de France (7th to 28th of July):